‘I think you’re so brave, travelling alone.’ Lily-Mae’s accent was warm. She’d already asked if my daughter Aaliya had siblings and told me ‘Oh, that’s OK,’ when I said no. I was occasionally told I was too young to be a widow. Four years ago he hadn’t survived a head-on collision with a van on […]

When Natasha went away, he kept finding things she had left behind. A map of Belsize Park under the sofa cushions. An article torn out of the newspaper with a sentence underlined in purple felt tip in the pocket of the dressing gown she’d liked to borrow. Six numbers on a lolly stick caught between […]

It was a miserable evening in November. Odilio – legendary restaurant critic for England’s most prestigious food magazine – bound purposefully along the shiny, waterlogged pavement, through the crowd of rain-drenched commuters, ducking into shelter every so often, skipping the puddles and potholes that threatened to dampen his stride. Only a riveting professional assignment could […]

Loveday stretched and turned over in bed. Treve snored gently beside her, not even stirring. Through the window, the moon was in its final quarter and clouds were drifting across it, thick enough to cast a shadow, but not enough that the light was completely extinguished. She got up quietly and pulled the covers back […]

Part One It is siesta time in the town. Today, the silence of slumber is more complete even than usual, since the only citizen permitted to continue work after the midday curfew bell has for once elected to waive the privilege. His sleep seems all the deeper for its rarity, but no one could say […]

Jill Owen lives in Leamington Spa, but is a London girl at heart. She is busy being an accountant in the daytime but is trying to cut down on working hours in order to write. Her favourite things to do are going to an exhibition or to see a band with her husband, or taking […]

Sam Mills is from Maidenhead, Berkshire. He studied Psychology and Philosophy at the University of Oxford. He currently lives in London, writing and working part-time as a tutor. He began writing fiction in 2015. After graduating from university, he took an internship in New Delhi where he wrote the first draft of a novel in […]

India Heaton was born in Lancashire in 1998 but moved down to Cornwall when she was three years old. She spent her school years torn between pursuing the sciences or writing. After some debatable A-level results, she chose writing. India spent two years at Ruskin College, Oxford, where she completed a Foundation Degree in Writing […]

Nick Cooke was born in London in 1961 and attended Christ’s College Cambridge, where he graduated in English Literature. He spent six years in Turin, Italy, as a teacher and translator, before returning to London in 1989, since when he has worked in Further Education as an EFL/ESOL curriculum leader and teacher, and a CELTA […]

Anna Appleby was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1993 and tragically lost her Geordie accent in a collision with the South. She floated around looking for a voice but eventually gave up and wrote things down instead. Anna now lives in Greater Manchester where she composes music and shops at Lidl in between writing […]